Petals on the Wind (Dollanganger 2)

Carrie to use her most formidable weapon--her voice.

She began to scream. Full blast, using every bit of

vocal power she had, Carrie threw back her head and

let go!

Down in her study on the first floor, Miss Emily

Dean Dewhurst bolted upright and smeared the ink in

her ledger. She ran to sound an alarm in the hall to

bring each and every female teacher on the run. It was eight o'clock in the evening. Most of the

faculty had retired to their rooms. Clad in bathrobes, negligees, and one in a scarlet evening gown, apparently ready to slip out on the sly, the teachers raced toward the clamor. They burst into the room Carrie shared with Sissy and found a frightful scene. Twelve girls all doing battle, while others stood back and watched. One girl, like Carrie, only screamed, but the others were yelling, kicking, wrestling on the floor, pulling hair, biting and tearing off clothes--and above all the racket of the fray resounded the blaring

trumpet of one small human in terror.

"Where is the man--the man?" cried out Miss

Longhurst, the one in the scarlet evening gown with

her bosom about to fall out of the lowcut bodice. "Miss Longhurst, control yourself!" ordered

Miss Dewhurst, who promptly assessed the situation

and planned her strategy. "There is no man here.

Girls!" she boomed, "stop this fracas this very second,

or every one of you will be denied liberty this

weekend!" Then she said in a low voice to the sexy

Longhurst, "You report to my office when this is under

control."

Every girl in that room about to have her hair

pulled or her face scratched jerked abruptly still and

quiet. With horrified eyes they looked around and saw

the room full of teachers--and worst of all Miss Dewhurst, who was not known for showing mercy once bedlam broke loose, as it often did. All hushed. All but Carrie who kept right on screaming, her eyes

squeezed shut, her small, pale hands in tight fists. "Why is that child screaming?" asked Miss

Dewhurst as a guilty-looking Miss Longhurst sneaked

away to take off her incriminating evidence--that

somewhere a man was hiding and waiting.

Naturally, it was Sissy Towers who recovered

first. "She's the one who started it all, Miss Dewhurst.